ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the social democratic road to power in Western Europe and South America. It looks at how the socialists in those countries moved from being Marxist parties to social democrat parties and why this shift has not occurred in Korea. With the exception of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, the development of Western European social democracy began with an ideological struggle with orthodox Marxism. Whereas Western European social democracy emerged from an ideological schism with Marxism, the socialist parties in Latin America were not successful because of a strengthened revolutionary tradition. However, the socialists in South America in the post Cold War era recovered their clout after they discarded their radical socialist politics. In contrast to their Western European and South American counterparts, the Korean socialist parties in the post Korean War era missed an opportunity to become a major political force because of two factors.
